Manpower export may suffer this year

News Report
Bangladesh manpower export market may suffer this
year against the backdrop of political tension in the
middle-east countries, budget cut in mega projects,
economic slowdown and policy of recruiting local
manpower in the oil producing countries, sources
said.
Bangladesh exported 500,694 workers to various
counties during the January-August period in 2018
with KSA holding top destination for manpower export
with 172,379 workers, followed by Malaysia with
125,819 workers.
In 2017, Bangladesh sent 1008,525 workers as against
555,881 workers sent in 2016.
The present trend shows that manpower export this
year may drop by 15-20 per cent as middle-east
countries are going through economic turmoil, sources
in the Bureau of Manpower and Employment and Training
(BMET) and Bangladesh Association of International
Recruiting Agency (BAIRA) said.
Expatriate Bangladeshis sent 13,526.84 million US
dollars in 2017, 13,609.77 million US dollars in 2016
and 15,270.99 million US dollars in 2015 home
Expatriate Bangladeshis sent 10,750.06 million US
dollars home during the January-August period of the
current calendar year, according to Bureau of
Manpower and Employment and Training (BMET).
Meanwhile, Malaysian government in an order issued on
August 21st cancelled the G2G Plus system after about
two and a half years of its execution.
The order will take effect from September 1 and no
worker will be able to go to Malaysia under the G2G
Plus system introduced by the previous government,
according to a highly placed source in the Ministry
of Expatriate Welfare and Overseas Employment.
The Malaysian government has sent a letter in this
regard to the Bangladesh High Commission in Kuala
Lumpur but the Ministry of Expatriate Welfare and
Overseas Employment is yet to receive the letter,
said source.
Meanwhile, the Immigration Department of Malaysia has
detained 30,000 illegal immigrants from January 1
till September 3, 2018, its director-general
Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said, according to malaymail.
He said over 1,000 employers were also detained
during the period for employing or harbouring the
illegals.
"The detentions are the result of more than 10,000
operations carried out nationwide with over 100,000
foreigners examined.
"We (Immigration) gave illegal immigrants the
opportunity to surrender themselves voluntarily
through the 3+1 programme which ended on August 30.
"In addition, we implemented the Rehiring Programme
which was terminated on June 30. However, we still
find many who do not adhere to the set procedures,"
he said.
He was speaking to reporters after the operation
codenamed "Ops Mega" here early today, which was also
joined in by Deputy Home Minister Datuk Mohd Azis
Jamman.
However, Malaysian authorities have not disclosed the
number of detained Bangladeshis during this drive
against the illegal immigrants.
Mustafar said despite a large number of operations
carried out, there were still many illegal immigrants
located throughout the country.
"Although we have introduced several programmes, many
still refuse to surrender, including employers. After
the Rehiring Programme, we implemented Ops Mega 3.0
and of the hundreds of operations that we have
conducted, we have arrested more than 1,000 illegals
from over 7,000 who were inspected.
According to the estimates of the manpower quarterly
survey being carried out by the Authority, the labor
market data from the administrative records in the
related authorities (including the Ministry of Labor
and Social Development, Ministry of Civil Service,
General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI),
Human Resources Development Fund (HRDF) and National
Information Center), showed a drop in number of non-
Saudi workers, according to Saudi Gazette report
The results of the Q1 2018 showed that the total
number of workers, according to the administrative
records in the Kingdom for the first quarter of 2018,
has reached 13,333,513 individuals compared to
13,581,141 individuals in Q4 2017.
The first quarter of 2018 also witnessed a drop in
the number of non-Saudi workers, according to the
Kingdom's administrative records, by 234,191
individuals compared to the Q4 2017. They reached
10,183,104 people compared to 10,417,295 in the
previous quarter. Meanwhile, the total number of
Saudi workers reached 3,150,409.
The rate of economic participation of the total
population (15 years and above), from the estimates
of the Q1 2018 manpower survey, has reached 55.5
percent compared to 55.6 percent for Q4 2017.
Meanwhile, the percentage of economic participation
of the total number of Saudis has reached 41.89
percent compared to 41.86 percent in the previous
quarter.
The economic participation of male Saudis (15 years
and above) rose to 63.5 percent compared to 63.4
percent during the previous quarter. The economic
participation of female Saudis (15 years and above)
rose to 19.5 percent compared to 19.4 percent in the
previous quarter.
The results indicated that the unemployment rate for
the total population (15 years and above) reached 6.1
percent in Q1 2018 compared to 6 percent in Q4 2017.
The total unemployment rate for Saudis (15 years and
above), according to the Q1 2018 manpower survey
estimates, has reached 12.9 percent.
On the other hand, this quarter witnessed a drop in
the unemployment rate of female Saudis, as it reached
30.9 percent compared to 31 percent in the Q4 2017.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate among male Saudis
rose to 7.6 percent compared to 7.5 percent in the
previous quarter.
The number of Saudi jobseekers in Q1 2018 totaled
1,072,162, according to the administrative records
(Jadarah, Saed and Hafiz programs) compared to
1,086,561 with a drop of 14,399 individuals compared
to the previous quarter. The percentage of male Saudi
jobseekers reached 16.1 percent while that of female
Saudi jobseekers reached 83.9 percent.
The bulletin included a large quantity of detailed
data on workers, according to the regulations and
bylaws they are subjected to, as well as nationality,
gender, age, administrative region, education level,
data on jobseekers, average monthly salary, working
hours and household helps.
According to Saudi Gazette, the Ministry of Labor of
KSA has stopped the transfer of services for
engineering graduates who are dependents of
expatriate workers to employers who want to hire them
for engineering jobs.
"The transfer of services of a dependent expatriate
engineer to establishments in the job title of
'engineer' is currently not available," the ministry
has said on its Twitter account.
The step follows the ministry's agreement with the
Saudi Council of Engineers to stop recruitment of
expatriate engineers from outside whose practical
experience is less than five years.
The two sides also agreed that expatriate engineers
should sit a professional test and attend a personal
interview with the council to make sure that he or
she has mastered the profession.
According to the latest statistics, the council has a
membership of 198,000 engineers consisting of Saudis
(16 percent) and non-Saudis (84 percent). There are
166,535 non-Saudi engineers enrolled in the council
against 31,466 Saudi engineers.
The ministry said the job title change for
expatriates are not available currently.
"This includes the transfer of services of an
expatriate from an individual Saudi sponsor to an
establishment and vice versa," it added.
The ministry also said the condition that expatriate
workers should stay for a period of two years at
least with their original sponsors before they are
allowed to transfer their iqamas no longer exists.
"The expatriate workers can transfer their iqamas to
new sponsors no matter how long they have stayed with
their original sponsors," the ministry added.